In June 2013, the prosecutor general’s office posted an article on its website providing an overview of Russian trafficking cases and international law on trafficking, including recommendations for increased activities to fight trafficking; the article advocated for prosecutorial oversight of the anti-trafficking fight in Russia. Summarize Human trafficking in Russia in your own words. According to official statistics, in 2013, an estimated 1.1 million labor migrants were employed in the Moscow region alone. Labor trafficking remains the predominant human trafficking problem within Russia, accelerating in the context of Russia’s significant increase in labor migration. According to official sources, there have been criminal cases involving Russian officials allegedly facilitating trafficking in the country, including by facilitating victims’ entry into Russia, providing protection to traffickers, and returning trafficking victims to their exploiters, and of employers bribing Russian officials to avoid enforcement of penalties for engaging illegal workers. No ministry has publicly acknowledged responsibility for or agreed to use ministerial budgets to create and operate shelters for victims or create and sustain a national referral mechanism that would refer victims to assistance providers. The government reportedly prosecuted at least 18 defendants in seven cases of sex trafficking and at least ten defendants in four cases of forced labor in 2013, compared with twenty-two sex trafficking prosecutions and ten labor trafficking prosecutions in 2012. This chapter describes the cause of prostitution in Russia in the 1990s. Nearly 800,000 people live as modern-day slaves in Russia, working under conditions of forced labor, debt bondage and human trafficking, according to the 2018 Global Slavery Index, a … Information released online from January 20, 2009 to January 20, 2017. The Government of Russia demonstrated law enforcement efforts during the reporting period, although such efforts were far lower than the estimated occurrence of trafficking in the country. Not only would this assist current victims, but it would make eradicating human trafficking in Russia a real possibility. Note: documents in Portable Document Format (PDF) require Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or higher to view. Russian authorities report they often charge sex trafficking cases under Articles 241 and 240, addressing the inducement to and organization of prostitution, as the elements of those crimes are often easier to prove; there is no public information on how many such cases involved forced as opposed to voluntary prostitution. Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, Counterterrorism & Countering Violent Extremism, Western Hemisphere (Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada), Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Trafficking in Persons 2014 Report: Country Narratives, Business Support: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization. The government did not publicly report any funding or programs for specific assistance to trafficking victims, and the government did not verify how many trafficking victims benefitted from funding or programs intended for other general purposes, such as witness protection, child protection, or government crisis centers, which were unlikely to accept victims who were not registered in the district in which the center is located. According to media reports, the government investigated at least 15 potential sex trafficking suspects under Article 127.1, and at least five labor trafficking cases under Article 127.2 in 2013. Moscow Ignoring Most Of Over 500,000 Cases Of Human Trafficking In Russia – OpEd In Russia, where an estimated one million people are living in what’s known as modern slavery, the politicized nature of human trafficking is also evident but deployed differently, as the Russian government has made the task of assisting trafficking victims a political one. Definitions and Classification of the Forms of Human Trafficking (HT) 14 1.1.1. The Office of Website Management, Bureau of Public Affairs, manages this site as a portal for information from the U.S. State Department. During the reporting period, there were no efforts to develop public awareness of possible forced labor or sex trafficking. What lead to it was wild capitalism, demand, and debt. Russia's national government demonstrated very limited efforts to prevent trafficking over the reporting period. Official and unofficial statistics estimate that there are between five million and 12 million foreign workers in Russia. 1.1. Following these statistics in 2016, Russia ceased providing information on prosecution and victim rehabilitation to the United States’ Trafficking in Persons report. So far, there have been no nationwide campaigns to raise awareness of human trafficking in Russia or efforts to develop public awareness of possible forced labor in advance of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. There were reports that Russian law enforcement was not always cooperative or responsive to investigative requests from foreign governments. Of this number, 22,000 worked in the housing and utilities sector, 110,000 in the construction industry, and the rest worked primarily as public transport drivers, seasonal agricultural workers, tailors and garment workers in underground garment factories, and vendors at marketplaces and shops. In 2019 and 2020, Iran failed to prevent human trafficking, prosecute its perpetrators or protect victims, the State Department said in the annual report released on June 25, 2020. Eighty-three of those were con… In early December 2013, representatives of the prosecutor general’s office announced they had submitted a national anti-trafficking action plan that included a request for authority to appoint an anti-trafficking rapporteur to the Russian Security Council for approval. 7 min read. Go to the current State.gov website for up-to-date information. The Russian Federation is the largest country in the world, stretching from Europe to the Pacific, and is a massive landmass for the origin, transit and destination of women, men and children who are trafficked into forced labor. As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Russia, and victims from Russia are exploited abroad. Although a law on temporary residency provided the opportunity for a person officially recognized as a victim of human trafficking to apply for an adjustment of pre-existing temporary residency permits, there were no reports that any trafficking victims received such a benefit and this law would not apply to any trafficking victims who were illegally present in Russia. Name of country: _____ Tier Placement (check box): ( ) Tier 1; ( ) Tier 2; ( ) Tier 2 Watch List; ( ) Tier 3. The Ministry of Internal Affairs, the lead law enforcement agency in the majority of trafficking cases, conducted regular training during the reporting period designed to guide its officers in handling trafficking cases. Instances of labor trafficking have been reported in the construction, manufacturing, agriculture, grocery store, maritime, and domestic service industries, as well as in forced begging, waste sorting, and street sweeping; trafficking also continued to be prevalent in textile and garment factories. The Trafficking in Persons Report, or the TIP Report, is an annual report issued by the U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.It ranks governments based on their perceived efforts to acknowledge and combat human trafficking. Human Trafficking: The Secret to Putin's Economy. Currently, Russia is facing a human trafficking crisis and yet, it is doing little to prevent this issue and protect those human trafficking already affects. These statistics aren’t exclusive to sex trafficking, but they do paint a grim picture of the country’s neglect toward the issue. Russia has one of the worst worldwide records in fighting forced labor and sex trafficking, according to an annual report from a U.S. government anti-trafficking agency. Office To Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. In 2013, law enforcement agencies registered 66 reports of crimes of trafficking in persons, of which 63 were for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Law enforcement cases from this reporting year indicate that forced prostitution occurs in brothels, hotels, and saunas, among other locations; certain traffickers advertised the sexual services of some minors over the internet. By comparison, the government investigated 70 sex trafficking and 17 labor trafficking cases in 2012. Russia has as many as 12 million foreign workers -- many from Central Asian countries like Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan -- and they sometimes fall victim to forced labor, abuse, and sex trafficking. Efforts to crack down on human trafficking in Russia focus not only on the men, women, and children who are illegally shipped out of Russia to undergo forced labor and sexual exploitation in other countries, but also those who are illegally brought into Russia from abroad. It involves the transport of persons, who are either entirely unwilling or misinformed about their destination, to a new place, usually to engage in forced labor or prostitution. Other criminal statutes were also used to prosecute trafficking offenders, such as Articles 240 and 241 for involvement in or organizing prostitution. Here are 10 facts about human trafficking in Russia. Russia has developed into a major hub for human trafficking. Amongst the most trusted sources for understanding the global situation is the research by the International Labour Organization (ILO).. The Government of the Russ During the year, workers from Russia and other countries in Europe, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia, including Vietnam and North Korea, were subjected to forced labor in Russia. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein. The numbers don’t get any better from there: Russia scored 42.35 out of 100 in a rating that judges its vulnerability to modern slavery. Articles 127.1 and 127.2 of the Russian criminal code prohibit both sex trafficking and forced labor, although they also cover non-trafficking offenses. Although labor trafficking remains the predominant human trafficking problem within Russia, sex trafficking continued. The government took efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts by newly criminalizing obtaining the sexual services of a minor aged 16 to 18 years old. Human Rights Watch also documented that employers of construction projects related to the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi withheld pay, disregarded contracts, and seized passports and work permits to keep workers in conditions of exploitation. Sex trafficking occurs in brothels, hotels, and saunas, among other locations. Throughout the summer and fall of 2013, the Russian government also conducted sweeps of areas with migrant labor, rounded up thousands of migrants, and charged the migrants without screening for indicators of trafficking. Reasons for Tier Placement & read my notes on how to write rank with TVPA’s language: The Moscow Police Department initiated a criminal case under Article 127.2 against one official of the Federal Migration Service (FMS) and two suburban Moscow police officers, alleging that the suspects had organized illegal entry to Russia of over 700 foreign citizens, primarily nationals of Vietnam, for the purpose of labor exploitation at an illegal garment factory in Moscow. Information released online from January 20, 2009 to January 20, 2017. Russia is ranked the sixteenth in prevalence of human trafficking among all countries, with more than a million people estimated to be living in slavery in Russia today. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein. The trafficking is multidimensional and it involves both commercial sexual exploitation and labor exploitation. 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